Sunday, December 20, 2009

The following is an excerpt from the spy thriller I'll be finishing by New Year's called Sin City Zion:

Phoebe stood in front of the highrise window looking out over the strip. She hugged her arms around her as much from the air conditioning as from the chill of fear. Nick came up behind her and rubbed the goosebumps from her arms.

“How are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” she said, surprised by the honesty of her response. Her stiff upper lip was failing her. She put her head on his chest. “Do you think they’re all right?”

“Sure. Don’s probably got the Detsois holed up in a place even swankier than this.” His voice managed an upbeat tone, but Phoebe felt the hard thumping of his heart.

“What are we going to do, Nick?”

“I don’t know yet.”

He always knew.

She felt tears welling. To push them away she did the first thing that came to mind. She kissed him.

HOW: Here is what to do if you want to participate in the Official Kissing Day Blogfest:

1. Write a post telling about the Official Kissing Day Blogfest. This way more writer/bloggers will get the word and be able to participate on Monday, Dec. 21st.

2. Tweet about it, using the hash tag: #kissingdayblogfest (I don’t know if this will help get the word out, but I thought it might be fun to try).

3. On Monday, December 21st, post on your blog an excerpt from your current WIP, or write a new scene that spotlights a kiss or an “almost kiss.”

4. If you are not a writer, or are uncomfortable sharing your work online, post your favorite kissing scene or almost-kissing scene from any book or movie.

**Please note that you do NOT have to do #1 or #2 to participate. I was trying to think of a way to get more writers to join in on the fun, but it is NOT mandatory! Just post your kissing scene on Monday for our reading pleasure!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

We ate popcorn and drank hot chocolate with our friend Laura Tebbitt as the Holiday Parade went by on Main Street in downtown Uniontown. Though a rainy night, the large crowd still seemed full of spirit.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

I recently had the honor to lunch with the Women's College Club of Pittsburgh. The meal was incredible: roast pork with porcini mushrooms, wild rice, and green beans, and for dessert, a generous piece of apple pie.

Diane Owen gave me this opportunity to share a meal and a slideshow presentation about Kentuck Knob with these gracious ladies and gentlemen. I took Diane and her husband, Dave, on a private tour of the house and grounds at Kentuck Knob in September. Both retired educators, she from a Pittsburgh high school and he from Carnegie Mellon University, they have that lifelong learner attitude that I subscribe to myself, one of the reasons I head a continuing education program at a Frank Lloyd Wright house.

Details on these classes are now posted on the Pennwriters Web site. Follow these tiny URLs to go directly to each class, or go to www.pennwriters.com and click on Conference then Intensives to browse the categories.

Friday, November 13, 2009

One would say I am lucky enough as it is to work at a Frank Lloyd Wright house, but Kentuck Knob is also home to two pieces of the Berlin Wall. We have had recent guests visiting just to catch a glimpse of this history, so I try never to take it for granted.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Last month we saw RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles which was so exciting since we bought The Beatles Rock Band as soon as it came out. Sitting further away from the stage allowed me to imagine I was seeing Paul, John, George, and Ringo up there. RAIN's multimedia stroll through the ages completed the illusion for me. If you ever have the opportunity, I recommend seeing RAIN. This is a tribute band which goes the extra mile for a memorable show.

Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles

Just last week we saw The StepCrew, a Canadian troupe featuring dancers, musicians, and vocalists: some of the troupe had a combination of these talents. I loved the dancing best, probably because I took thirteen years of tap as a child and teenager. Jason, of course, loved the music, probably because he has been playing guitar for over twenty years. Certainly something there for us both.

As most of you know, I am a huge proponent for pride of place, so I smiled the entire evening, being among hundreds of like-minded people from Fayette, Somerset, and Westmoreland counties, all working toward the same goal as defined in the LHVB mission statement:

"To promote and support tourism, tourism development, and the interests of the travel and hospitality industries in Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands region..., thereby contributing to the economic growth and quality of life for the area."

Here's what I'm reading now to brush up on some general Wright knowledge and specifically information on the prairie style of architecture, which I need for a scene in my fourth chapter.

For those of you with an interest in architecture, you'll recognize the publisher Taschen, and if your interest is specific to Frank Lloyd Wright, you'll certainly recognize author Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer.

During the six-hour training days, I gave teachers an in-depth, private tour of the Hagan House and the Sculpture Meadow, then they created lesson plans to take back to their classrooms based on the touring experience and our discussions. And, best of all, each participant received 6 free PDE-Approved ACT 48 Continuing Education Hours.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Saved by the Monarch by Dana Marton
Many years ago, I had a job as an afternoon receptionist at a company. The morning receptionist was a Harlequin reading maniac. We shared the same desk and every drawer was filled to the brim with Harlequin novels. Since work was slow, I began reading those little books in between answering the phone. (Romance writers must learn to multitask.) Soon I was reading them faster then I could find them. Then one day in the library I came across Kathryn Falk’s How to Write a Romance. I suppose I haven’t considered the authors until then. They seemed mythical creatures born with this extraordinary knowledge. But the very existence of Kathryn’s book suggested that romance writing could be learned! That was a stunningly new concept to me at the time, almost too good to be believed.

So I took How to Write a Romance home and read it, and began to write a historical romance set in Ancient Egypt. I had a couple of hundred pages when the floppy disk that held my only copy got corrupted. I just didn’t have the heart to start all over again. When I overcame the disappointment of losing my early masterpiece, I began a sci-fi romance. This one I even sent to a publisher! (Optimism is very important for a romance writer.) I got a very nice letter back, but they weren’t interested. The next book was an inspirational romance. This time the publisher (a different one) loved the partial and asked for a full. Sadly, no sale. Then I wrote a straight romance. Then a western historical. (Romance writers need lots of resilience.) Then a romantic suspense that actually won a couple of writing contests. I might have meandered along like this endlessly if I hadn’t found Seton Hill University and their Writing Popular Fiction program. (Romance writers ask for help when they need some.)

I tried more romantic suspense there along with epic fantasy. I was told by knowledgeable people that I had a category voice and romantic suspense was my strength. Only one publisher publishes category romantic suspense so, yay, I had a target. Harlequin Intrigue was one of my favorite lines anyway. I started reading even more of them. And wrote a novel specifically with them in mind. And sold it. Just like that. After only thirteen years of trying! Piece of cake. (Romance writers don’t give up. Ever.)

Holding that book in my hands was so much fun that I have done it since again and again and again. I have twenty novels so far and my books are published in eleven countries in eight different languages. Some have been turned into audio books, some you can download to your phone chapter by chapter. One was even turned into a comic book in Japan! I’m a Harlequin author at last. And I’d like to think there are some receptionists out there with my books in their desk drawers. (Romance writers are optimists. Oh, right. I’ve already said that.)

–Forget kissing frogs. Meet Prince Miklos of Valtria. And if the crown fits….--

CONTEST:
Email me at heidirubymiller@gmail.com with the subject MONARCH CONTEST and include in the body the names of five other Dana Marton novels, your name, and your address by 12:00 PM EST on May 14, and I'll enter you in a random drawing to win a signed copy of SAVED BY THE MONARCH.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Part of my duties as Educational Marketing Director of Frank Lloyd Wright's House on Kentuck Knob are to create and maintain a blog showcasing the culture surrounding the house and sculpture meadow, including the many events and programs offered.

Monday, March 02, 2009

The following is an account of how M. D. Benoit came to have her third novel published in the Jack Meter series:

"As far as I can remember, I’ve always written and told myself stories, but it took the death of a very dear friend to convince me that it was futile to hold down a job I hated instead of doing something I’d always yearned to do: write full-time.

Once I had taken that decision, I took a few creative writing classes at our local community college but it was an online writing course that opened the doors for me and convinced me I could do this. In 1995 I joined Writelab, run by a wonderful writer named J. R. Lankford. It was a structured writing course with constructive critique from other would-be writers enrolled in the course. There, I met two wonderful people who eventually became part of my critique group and who still support me and occasionally (virtually) hit me over the head when I’m not meeting my potential.

It was also at Writelab that Jack Meter was born.

I used him for exercises on point-of-view, dialogue, characterization, flashback, internal dialogue, etc. When I was finished with the course, I thought I was finished with Jack. I was wrong.

Like a best friend who had moved to a distant city, I missed him. I realized that during the time I had used him as an anchor for my writing exercises he had become important to me. After several months of resistance, I put together the bits and pieces I had written during Writelab and fleshed out the story. Originally entitled ‘Til the Fat Lady Sings, it was published as an ebook in 2000. When the publisher folded, I sold it again to my current publisher, Zumaya Publications and the title changed to Metered Space.

Metered Space was supposed to stand alone. I went on to write two other novels (Catalyst, tentative pub date 2010), and Synergy, published in 2007.

But Jack had other ideas. He kept insisting that his story wasn’t over yet, that we had a lot more road to walk together. From his insistence were born Meter Made (2005) and the Jack Meter Case Files series. Meter Destiny (2008), the novel showcased here, is the third one in the series, although it can be read as a standalone book. Two more Case Files are under the editing block.

If I talk about Jack as if he were a real person, it’s because he is real to me. When a writer lives with a character for years (albeit only in his or her head), developing a sense of intimacy is inevitable. And no, Jack is not me, nor is he the me I’d like to be. He’s simply Jack Meter, someone who lives a pretty bizarre life and who struggles with who he is.

Destiny. Friendship. Family. Jack Meter hasn’t spent a lot of time on these ideas and has avoided them completely since Annie’s violent death three years before. But the claim of a strange group calling themselves the Fates from Mythology that it is still controlling Life on Earth and the Fates’ allegation that one of them was kidnapped, force him to review where these concepts fit in his life.

As Jack Meter unravels the kidnapping mystery by wading through a series of riddles and lies, and as he realizes his new clients are using him and his friends in a game of their own, he finally understands he must accept his own destiny. But will that understanding come in time to save his friends’ lives and stop a sociopathic alien from destroying everything Jack knows and believes in?"

-M. D. BenoitMarch 2009

Meter Destiny is available online both as a trade paperback (e.g., amazon, Barnes and Noble) and as an ebook (e.g., amazon, eReader, Fictionwise, Mobipocket). During Read an eBook Week, March 8-14, M. D. will give away the first two ebook versions of the Jack Meter Case Files in the series if you buy the third. Check out details during that week on her website (http://mdbenoit.com) and her blog (http://mdbenoit.com/blog).

And, she has party prizes. The grand prize is an autographed copy of RETURNING MY SISTER'S FACE, which will be awarded by a random drawing to be held at the end of today. To get your chance to win, either:

Saturday, February 28, 2009

"Green plateaus protruding through a dense fog. Pink and white laurel petals falling into a clear, cool stream. Rushing rivers spilling through a mountain gorge. These are the images that welcome us back to Pennsylvania after we've been away for too long. And when we hit the trail again, inhaling the scent of fallen pine needles and air charged with the mists of cascades, we know we are home.

A thousand times we've felt the pull of wanderlust, and a thousand times we've driven into the ancient Appalachians and been reminded why we couldn't leave. Our forests and wilderness areas are the fuel that keep us running."

Though we offered this sentiment for the entire state, especially after our extensive travels in 2005 throughout Pennsylvania to gather experiences and photographs for our guide, we admit that our small corner of PA with its borders along West Virginia and Maryland were the images we held in our minds as the book went to press.

Here, the flowing waters of the Youghiogheny River and Meadow Run serve in an oxymoronic capacity to soothe and energize at once, as if the errant electrons passing from the water to us replace any stagnant air, thoughts, and emotions with fresh perspective and refueled lungs. Melodramatic? Maybe. Necessary? Absolutely. That's why we continue to return.

(edited from the original Field Notes by Heidi Ruby Miller newsletter, April 2008)

Friday, February 06, 2009

This is a dream job for me because it combines my degrees in Anthropology, Geography, and Writing, and my experience as an educator, archaeologist, and travel industry worker.

Neil Gaiman once mentioned something about each one of us connecting to certain energy centers around the world: that's how Kentuck feels to me.

The photo to the left was taken by my good friend Darlene Martin when I was still a guide in June 2008. Those beautiful white hexagons on the terrace's flagstone floor come from skylights in the cantilevered ceiling. They migrate depending on the season and time of day. In early summer, they make a path straight through the dining room and out to the back patio.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

1. Which of your characters is your favorite?Everyone is always surprised to hear that, in From Light to Dark, Balor is my favorite character. He's technically the antagonist, but I just love the guy. Come on, world. Give him a chance. :)

2. Tell me about your travels.3. Coffee, tea, or milk?

4.What else can you do besides write?Let's see... I can't juggle. Math is out. My cooking's a bit like poison. Um... O.O

5. Who are you reading right now?6. Pop culture or academia?

7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?There's a fight scene in From Light to Dark that was not only emotionally-charged, but also confusing for me to write, since I have never actually been in a fight myself. I had to call several friends who had been in more unfortunate situations than I and conduct interviews with them about what exactly a punch to the nose feels like. After that, I resolved to never be punched in the nose.

8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?Anywhere. One of my short stories, "God Corp.," came to me after several people tried to kill off my (obsessive) love of Shakespeare by pointing out that he might not have written the plays himself at all. Inspiration for another short story, "Mind Reader," came when I was surfing the web and found colorful images of brain scans online. Don't ask me how I found that, because I haven't a clue. In any case, it led to something fun!

9. Food you could eat everyday.10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?11. What kind of music speaks to you?

12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?Honestly, my stories wouldn't make it without outlines. There's nothing wrong with taking detours when something interesting in the distance catches my eye, but without a general guidemap, I would get lost in a dark forest somewhere and end up stuck in a ditch. And there'd probably be no cell reception, and I'd start getting hungry...

13. Celebrity crush.14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?

15. Do you still watch cartoons?Compulsively. Noggin is one of my favorite television channels, and that's a station only for preschoolers or hard-core cartoon lovers. I also love tons of anime and watch Cartoon Network (both daytime and Adult Swim) whenever I have a chance. Simply put: yes, I do still watch cartoons. And, yes. I am comfortable with that fact. :)

Irene L. Pynn has been a writer her whole life. Coming from a family of writers, it was inevitable!

She has taught everything from Creative Writing to English Literature at both the high school and college levels, but before becoming a teacher, Irene worked as a reporter at a small newspaper while she finished her Master's degree in Writing Popular Fiction at Seton Hill University. Her thesis novels there were a work of speculative fiction for children about time travel, and a strange little thing about a hedgehog.

When she isn't writing or teaching, Irene loves to spend time with her supportive parents, her talented brother, her incredible fiancé, and Othello, Sprocket, and Coretta (cat, dog, and cat, respectively).

The theatre is another of Irene's great loves, and she has worked in almost all areas – on stage, back stage, writing for the stage… or just sitting in the audience, she's always at home in a play. One of the geekiest things about Irene is her deep affection for Shakespeare since elementary school, but she has come to terms with that by now and sees no reason to hide it. ("Hamlet FTW!")

Irene is also an avid reader. It doesn't matter whether she's reading a novel, a short story, or a comic book, Irene enjoys the same genres that she writes: speculative fiction, magical realism, or just good, old-fashioned fantasy and science fiction.

Every November, Irene can be found red-eyed in front of her computer, trying to meet the challenge of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Through this experience, she has stretched her writing muscles and made some wonderful friends who inspire her every day. Her NaNo for 2007 is currently in the revision process.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

3. Coffee, tea, or milk?(evil laugh) Coffee, of course. Always coffee. Forever coffee. Although I do like English Breakfast and Glengettie tea. And I must have milk in both my tea and my coffee. So maybe just pour all three into a big swimming pool and I'll float about in them.

4. What else can you do besides write?Catalog. Used as a verb. I could create both Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal numbers for books. You want travel to Britain? That's 914. Biography? 921. I think movies are 798.... It's a useless talent now because most cataloging is done by a central source these days and distributed by computer, instead of each library having its own cataloger. So I'm rusty now.

5. Who are you reading right now?

6. Pop culture or academia?I studied pop culture when I was part of academia. Seriously. Ask about my paper on Disney. Ask about my book on how pug dogs saved civilization. No, on the other hand, don't get me started... :)

7. What is the toughest scene you ever wrote?8. Where do you find your inspirations to write?

9. Food you could eat everyday.Chocolate. Especially Cadbury or Galaxy chocolate. I could live on chocolate. Cadbury Fruit & Nut bar - there's my protein and vitamins for the day. Think all I'd have to worry about would be scurvy. I wonder if the orange Aero bar has Vitamin C?

10. Are you into sports or other physical activities?Horseback riding. I love horseback riding - Western style. I'm not so good at English style.

If you mean *watching* sports, then Red Sox. Go Red Sox Nation! :)

11. What kind of music speaks to you?12. Do you outline your stories or do they just take you along for the ride?

13. Celebrity crush.John Barrowman. Totally John Barrowman. And I actually got his autograph - squeeeeee!!!! He is a sweetheart - and very patient with fans who go completely blank and can't think of anything intelligent to say. (Yes, that would be me.)

14. Who are the biggest influences on your work?15. Do you still watch cartoons?

Susanne Saville has earned a Master's Degree in History and a second Master's Degree in Library Science. The casual observer might suppose that this primarily qualifies her to dispense fries at fast-food restaurants. However, Ms. Saville has worked as a Reference Librarian in California and as a History Instructor at Georgia Military College. She currently resides in New England and, along with writing, delights in researching, spending quality time with her cats, and eating fries at fast-food restaurants. Susanne's most recent novel is The Secret Hunter.

Sunday, January 04, 2009

I always like to look back on my submissions record for the previous year right around this time, so here are my statistics for 2008, along with commentary:

2008 SUBMISSIONS AND RESPONSES:68 total submissions
*The total is 58 less than 2007 and much less than the Buckell 150 I've been striving for annually, but the results of these meager submissions were encouraging.

15 rejections
*These are from various sources for a variety of projects, some agented, some freelance (mags, agents, online media, editors).

3 withdrawals
*All withdrawals were for online publications, 2 of which turned out to be of questionable integrity.

1 other
*I created the "other" category for circumstances which cannot be covered under the usual headings; in this instance, it was a bad e-addy with no way to find an alternate one.

20 non-responders
*This isn't as cut and dry as it would seem because either my agent or me are still in direct contact, negotiations, etc. with 5 of these sources.

AND NOW...

30 acceptances
*The most I have ever gotten within the six years I have been keeping submission records. And, on 4 of these occasions, I was asked to submit my work based on my online presence and past publications.

2008 RESPONSES FROM 2007 SUBMISSIONS:5 rejections
*So the longer they have it doesn't necessarily mean the better your chances? :)

NEWS Lettered Edition of Ambasadora

PUBLICATIONS I am so excited to share this special lettered hardcover edition of AMBASADORA: Marked By Light from Dog Star Books . There ...

NEWS Starrie in Publishers Weekly

Nice review from Publisher's Weekly for Starrie (From the World of Ambasadora)!
"Miller’s short third novel in the space-faring, caste-bound, hierarchically polyamorous, and socially striated Ambasadora universe (after 2013’s Greenshift) manages to balance the exoticized presentation of the setting with relatable human interaction...the romance between Ben and Naela highlights the emotional side of reaching out to those who are different from you, even in a world where those differences are stylized and codified."

TALKING ABOUT THE AMBASADORA SERIES

"AMBASADORA has a lot to say about the human spirit and it says it well." -MIKE RESNICK Nebula and Hugo Award-winning Author of the Santiago series

TALKING ABOUT MAN OF WAR

Science fiction is full of tales of displaced heroes, finding themselves involved in the conflicts of their adoptive worlds....Heidi Ruby Miller really runs with this concept, as Two Hawks finds himself equally used and abused by pretty much everyone he comes into contact with. Being a novella, it’s a fairly quick read, action-packed and gripping....I generally like to find something to criticise, no matter how small, just to avoid being taken for one of the current rash of meaningless five star reviewers that currently infest the internet, but I honestly couldn’t find anything to complain about. I genuinely hope Miller and Meteor House plan on continuing the story with further books." -DAVE BRZESKI, British Fantasy Society

TALKING ABOUT MANY GENRES

"...a beautiful and insightful must-have book for any writer, from newbie to working pro. Highly recommended!" -JONATHAN MABERRY NYT Bestselling Author of the Joe Ledger series

TALKING ABOUT STARRIE

"Take authentic, straight-ahead space opera. Stir in a highly trained, kick-ass assassin on a mission of vengeance. Toss in a career soldier and watch them battle together, and grow together, as adversity piles on. Serve hot! Heidi Ruby Miller’s STARRIE serves up the perfect concoction of nonstop, take-no-prisoners SF action and romance, set against the intriguing backdrop of the brutal and dangerous world of AMBASADORA, and deftly leaves us wanting more." -Win Scott Eckert, coauthor with Philip José Farmer of The Evil in Pemberley House and author of The Scarlet Jaguar, winner of the 2014 New Pulp Award

TALKING ABOUT MARKED BY LIGHT

"With an anthropologist’s eye for world building and an engaging fast-paced style, Heidi Ruby Miller hurtles her characters through a dystopian labyrinth in which hollow beauty is revered and love a virtual crime." -Christopher Paul Carey, SWORDS AGAINST THE MOON MEN

TALKING ABOUT MAN OF WAR

"More than just demonstrating how the best science fiction thrills with action, and explores romance in new and unexpected ways, Heidi Ruby Miller gives us something equally important -- representation, through an exploration of Farmer's classic Iroquois character Two Hawks. Anyone interested in page-turners with diversity should stop what they're doing and read Man of War." -John Edward Lawson, Bram Stoker Award finalist and author of Bibliophobia

TALKING ABOUT STARRIE

"STARRIE is one ripping fast book and a well told story. I loved it!" --Basil Sands, The Big Thrill

TALKING ABOUT GREENSHIFT

TALKING ABOUT HEIDI'S WRITING

"...a writer-crush on Heidi Ruby Miller. I mean, holy crap, this girl can write! This is how you write Science-Fiction." -CARY CAFFREY Bestselling Author of The Girls from Alcyone trilogy

TALKING ABOUT STARRIE

"Miller’s short third novel in the space-faring, caste-bound, hierarchically polyamorous, and socially striated Ambasadora universe (after 2013’s Greenshift) manages to balance the exoticized presentation of the setting with relatable human interaction...the romance between Ben and Naela highlights the emotional side of reaching out to those who are different from you, even in a world where those differences are stylized and codified." -Publisher's Weekly

TALKING ABOUT MARKED BY LIGHT

"Talk about an outlaw hero that is larger than life. Talk about a hero who changes worlds." -JENNA BENNET NYT Bestselling Author of The Fortune series

TALKING ABOUT HEIDI'S STORIES

TALKING ABOUT STARRIE

"With explosive action, kick-ass heroes and romance that hits all the right notes, STARRIE gives fans of science fiction romance everything they want—at a breakneck pace. Plan to stay up all night finishing this one, it’s impossible to put down!" - RHONDA MASON Author of The Empress Game